/ Razorfish Health
Heads Back to School

Situation

The Business Challenge

Razorfish Health was gearing up for the “Back to School” event at the Franklin Institute and needed to get the RFH team interested and generate some excitement around the event. Seeing this as an opportunity to also showcase some of our technological capabilities to our peers, it seemed like a perfect time to utilize some of our technical resources and explore new technology to roll out a fun and creative solution.

Some of the things we wanted to showcase were:

• The potential of Augmented Reality (AR): utilizing the emerging technology to create interactive and immersive experiences right on the phone
• How we are able to reach users: communication capabilities and strategies across digital channels
• The power of engagement: motivating active participation and excitement through interactive content that’s too compelling to ignore
• The effectiveness of a different working methodology: specifically Lean and Extreme Programming (XP), to illustrate a more efficient and dynamic approach to the development process

To make all this magic happen, we aimed to build an experimental mobile app that was designed to create a ton of buzz and flaunt our tech and engagement skills to our peers. We had a fairly ambitious timeline of about 3 months, and I was approached to lead the charge from conception to final product.

The Audience

Digital agency creatives, operations, technical teams, and executives

My Role

• Overall creative direction and decision making
• Formulating an engagement strategy, concept and execution
• Content creation
• Resourcing and overseeing a small team of creatives as needed
• Collaborate closely with development team to quickly iterate and deploy solution
• Product owner managing a loose agile/extreme programming (XP) process

My Approach:

To be successful in this endeavor, I employed these strategies:

• Move it along quickly: due to a tight timeline, initial rough conceptual thinking was socialized with leadership, approved, and we pressed forward
• Make it real, real fast: once we had our idea and the go-ahead, design ramped up quickly I began to create a shared prototype, with iterations happening rapidly
• Design for a high level of engagement: our solution had to be based around getting our users to get excited about the app and the event, and actually get involved!
• Gamify the app: because we wanted our users to be highly motivated to actually use the app, we procured a budget for some pretty legit prizes so we could make it a competition
• Work tightly with the developers and start building: using Axure RP, I produced a realistic prototype to be referenced by a team of developers dispersed over several locations around the country

Solution:

Roll out a dynamic app to be a hype machine for the upcoming all-hands gathering

To generate excitement and build anticipation for the event, the app featured compelling design and engaging functionality, using visuals that were consistent with what attendees would experience at the offsite. To make participation easy, users could sign in with their corporate credentials, ensuring seamless access. The app encouraged user involvement through daily clues and tasks that required interaction with augmented reality (AR) elements and completion of short quizzes. Points were earned for regular app usage, fostering a sense of competition among participants. The app also maintained constant communication with users, prompting them to interact frequently. Additionally, it provided essential event information, such as directions and schedules, ensuring that users were well-prepared and engaged from start to finish.

I aimed to ensure that users quickly grasped why they should use the app

On the user’s initial sign-in, the app featured quick onboarding screens designed to prime users for what the app could do. These screens introduced the key gameplay concepts and provided an overview of how the app would function, ensuring users were ready to engage with its features right from the start.

The dashboard needed to generate excitement, competitiveness, and just be fun!

The dashboard design needed to generate excitement, foster a sense of competitiveness, and be fun to use. To achieve this, we iterated on the design, exploring various options such as light and dark themes, and different layouts expressing various information hierarchies. We landed on a dark background concept that dedicated prime real estate to these key elements: a countdown to the event to build anticipation, a daily “clue” for tasks users needed to complete, and prominently displayed points and status to encourage competition. A quick glance at the dashboard gave a user a view into the most important things they could do.

We engaged our users in different ways

Our engagement strategy was multifaceted, blending AR interactions, gamification to ignite competition, and personalized communications tailored to individual user behavior. Daily tasks or clues were provided, encouraging regular interaction with the app, while push notifications reminded users to take their next steps to stay in the game.

AR targets were discreetly hidden in the offices, with the app guiding users to find them through the daily clues. Upon discovering a target, users interacted with it and took a brief quiz, with their answers helping to categorize them based on their learning styles and aptitudes in areas such as finance, client management, innovation, and public speaking. These insights were then used to further customize in-person learning sessions. Additionally, personalized emails were sent at strategic intervals, fostering ongoing engagement and maintaining a strong connection with each user.

Everything in the app was gamified to drive competitiveness

We integrated gamification wherever possible, fitting in as much as we could within the project’s scope. This meant that users could earn points for even the smallest of actions, like simply opening the app. While we didn’t explicitly inform users about these rewards, they quickly caught on and started racking up points. To further heighten the sense of competition, we offered extra bonuses to users who were the first to complete certain tasks each day or to reach an AR marker. This created a sense of urgency and encouraged users to stay ahead of the game. Additionally, we hid a few extra bonuses within the app, offering users a chance to discover and earn even more points. This added an element of surprise and kept users actively engaged with the app. The team had wanted to include a system of various badges for different achievements in the gameplay, but this idea was ultimately scrapped for scope concerns.

Design was left intentionally simple for utility functions in the app

The app also needed to have basic event information such as directions to the venue, parking, schedule, etc.. There was a lot we could have done here to make these items more dynamic, but it would not have served our defined priorities. To be able to focus our efforts on the meatier stuff, these were designed to be built with minimal effort, and the result was very basic, but served the purpose.

The app played a crucial role on event day

On event day, the app was used to guide participants through their schedule and room assignments, ensuring everyone was in the right place at the right time. During the breakout sessions, we leveraged the app’s capabilities by conducting a final exercise that highlighted its interactive features. Participants were asked to use the app again during innovation sessions, where they experienced a unique AR interaction based on their responses to questions throughout the week. This segmentation allowed us to tailor the AR experience, and, based on their quiz answers, we revealed each participant’s preferred learning style—auditory, visual, or tactile. This personalized approach not only showcased the app's versatility but also enhanced the overall user experience by aligning with individual learning preferences.

Reflections & Learnings

The power of gamification: key to app adoption

The gamification aspect of the app proved to be the most powerful engagement factor, driving its success and widespread adoption. While we didn't initially anticipate such high levels of competitiveness and desire to win, users quickly figured out how to maximize their points and eagerly exploited the game mechanics. In hindsight, adding more nuance to the points and scoring system could have made the experience even more compelling. Gamification is a powerful motivator, especially when rewards are at stake, and it was incredible to observe the excitement and competitiveness that buzzed through the office. Some users even went so far as to attempt various device hacks to edge out the competition!

While an overall success, the app did have some shortcomings

While the AR experience was visually impressive, it wasn’t engaging enough to hold users’ attention beyond earning points and completing quizzes. As well, despite the inevitable risks of bugs and glitches due to tight timelines, the team found creative solutions to address them, release quick patches, and keep the users invested in the app.

Overall the initiative was a big success, and a testament to the effectiveness of our team collaboration. The app generated lots of buzz and engagement, and the innovation session was well received.